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18 December 2018

R.I.P. Tumblr

EN – Monday, December 3, the social media Tumblr announced that from December 17 will change its guidelines about the content that users can post, and in particular these new guidelines prohibit the sharing of so-called “adult content”. The parameters with which these contents are identified, however, have stupid, misogynist and bigoted bases, and were decided only to “clean up” the reputation of Tumblr after Apple has removed the app of the site from its store.
If on one hand the underlying background intent of Tumblr is more than fair and shareable, indeed, that is to counter the spread of violent or pedo-pornographic material, they should have taken action about it a long time ago, in fact these new lines will hit the freedom of expression of millions of users.
However, Tumblr has not limited itself to announcing this drift of censorship of freedom, but has also immediately started to hide some posts deemed as no longer suitable, so that many blogs have found themselves with archives suddenly empty from one day to another, and many users have already vanished, without any warning. In addition, the contents posted since December 3th are already checked and those deemed unsuitable are reported with a “red flag”, against which the user can take action requiring removal if he considers the post unfairly reported.
To show how absurd this new line is, the red flag has appeared on any kind of photos that do not have anything pornographic, even on photos of a hand, desert dunes, or Clint Eastwood!
The red flag, for example, was also given to a collage of mail art that I posted some time ago and that you see above (later removed). To make you understand how much the new control of Tumblr content is crazy and inconceivable. For now, this illuminated system seems to be destined to hit “clean” blogs and posts, forcing users totally unrelated to illicit behaviour to request thousands of removals. A delirium.
In my case, as a figurative artist who made of human body and also of sensuality primary subjects of her artworks, almost all the paintings or artworks that I could share on Tumblr will almost certainly be flagged, even if in theory art should be exempt, but in fact they have shown that this is not the case. And this will happen to many artists, photographers, designers, fashion bloggers, not to mention the fans of Games of Thrones….
I open a glimpse about my work and I confess that, since it is not possible to have a model in flesh and blood that literally embodies my inspirations, I have always used images and photos of models or famous people on which I modelled my paintings. Since I discovered the existence of Tumblr, about 7 years ago, the 66% of my paintings were inspired by photos shared on Tumblr. It’s a huge quantity, a well of inspiration that has (had) no equal in the net and which will no longer be available to anyone.
The value of Tumblr has always been to be a social where people could not only find inspiration or express themselves freely, but also become a home for many people who already live, for countless and hateful reasons, denigration and marginalization elsewhere. Tumblr was a safe haven to confront and create communities and even human and social relationships, a place where to find people like us, sometimes accept, sometimes enlighten… all things that will be irremediably cancelled because they chose to eliminate some rotten apple by cutting the tree and extirpating its roots.As an artist I can not bear anything that suppresses art in all its forms, and any form of indiscriminate and discriminatory censorship, so I decided that I deletet my blog and my Tumblr account, in the hope that everything that this site had good and free, find a new home elsewhere and soon. For now, I will not relocate on another place, follow me here on WordPress, on my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram